10 Things We Learned From This Week’s Devastating ‘Sons Of Anarchy’

Last night’s episode of Sons of Anarchy was momentous, and will have huge implications for the rest of the season/series. Ashley Tisdale showed up. More importantly, a major character died, and there is going to be a lot of divisiveness over whether it should’ve been that character who died. I don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t seen it yet, so let’s leap past the jump and get right to it.

1. You Made the Wrong Choice — Although I predicted it last Friday, and even though the “previously on” scenes basically confirmed the prediction, Opie’s brutal death-by-metal-pipe was still shocking in its brutality. That sucked. That really, really sucked. To me, because I adored that character, Opie’s death was even harder to take than the one at the end of season two of Boardwalk Empire. The irony is, we’ve been nagging at Kurt Sutter to grow some balls and kill off a major character for awhile, but we didn’t mean Opie! Damnit. For God’s sake, man. He was the best character on the show.

On the other hand, as much as it pains me to say it, his death makes the most sense. There wasn’t anything left for Opie within SAMCRO. Either him or Clay would’ve had to die, and this is Hamlet, and Opie is Ophelia, and Ophelia — like what Opie essentially did — took her own life. Polonius (Piney) is dead. Ophelia is dead. It’s the way it had to happen, and props to Sutter for not cheating the Hamlet storyline. It still hurts, though. And that blow to the back of the head is absolutely seared into my brain.

I saw some people suggest last week that they wouldn’t watch Sons of Anarchy anymore without Opie, but you know what? For the time being, it’s never been more compelling, and there’s no way I don’t stick it out to see Jax get his revenge upon Damon Pope. I need that revenge.

2. Damon Pope Is One Mean Son of a Bitch — What he did to Tig was awful. This, however, was unconscionable: Making Jax choose which Son would have to die. That was messed up. I hate Damon Pope. But I am loving the hatred. Clearly, Kurt Sutter wanted to create someone even more evil than Gus Fring, and while the character isn’t as compelling yet, he’s certainly on the level in the pure evil category. I didn’t think I could want someone to die as badly as I wanted to see Agent Stahl die, but Sutter has proven me wrong with Pope.

3. I’m going to find out who you are and where you live and then I’m going to kill you — Jax is not kidding, either. The prison guard is a dead man walking. What Damon Pope did was a business decision, of sorts. He forced Jax to surrender a Son to even the score with the Niners. What the prison guard did, however, was pure, nasty unnecessary bloodlust. I’m going to enjoy watching him die.

4. Jax Owns Tig Now — Initially, when Jax told Damon Pople that he wanted Tig out because he’d be a good soldier for him, and that Damon Pope could do whatever he wanted with him afterward, I thought Jax was just playing Pope to get Tig out. But after Jax’s conversation with Tig, I think he means it. I think he really does hate Tig for creating the circumstances that led to Opie’s death. He has Tig in his back pocket now, and one vote he can always count on.

5. Joel McHale Watch Week 3 — Still no Joel McHale. I have a feeling, however, he arrives next week, and maybe he helps SAMCRO get to the prison guard. Here’s McHale’s Bro Walk:

Not really evil, just absolutely cold and heartless, willing to do what’s necessary to keep his business up and running. Sort of in a “nothing stops this train” sort of manner. He committed an evil act, but that’s because he needed to send a message. Not because he was evil.

Well that begs the definition of the word. Cold, calculating, willing to do what’s necessary even if it means the death of another human could be considered the definition of evil. He doesn’t need a small cat and a spaceship does he?

I’d say evil is an unnecessary blood lust. Evil would be like The Ice Truck Killer, or Trinity. Rawls was evil because he just liked to fuck with people. Evil is someone who likes to fuck people for the sake of fucking them.

I’m guessing either Clay called vice to get back at Nero or maybe Ashley Tisdale did it to get back at Gemma. I’m half-wondering if Clay didn’t actually sleep with AT, just wanted to see if Gemma still has feelings for the ol’ man (Hint: She totally does)

Gut-shot dude: I’m pretty sure it was the cops, I thought the shotgun blast woke up Gemma.

Regarding Opie’s death – it sucked, he had one/two more things to do (Kill Clay/Tig for revenge, possibly burn down the whole MC for ruining his life in so many ways, or just riding into the sunset with his best bro by his side), but I am glad that Sutter didn’t cop out with some shitty deus ex machina where Romeo literally bust the Sons of out jail with a full mercenary squad or something.

Romeo can protect the Sons from federal prosecution, because the CIA gives him weight with the government. And he can get them protection from gangs in prison, because the cartel gives him weight with the Hispanic gangs.

But Damon Pope is a major player. He’s the head of a major American crime organisation. If the cartel says “no” to him, it won’t mean shit. The only thing that’ll stop Pope, is a bullet.

Oh, I’m getting a little tired at how Gemma basically goes nuts anytime someone slights her. Won’t let me see my grandkids at day care? I better try to manipulate someone into fucking you over regarding custody by insinuating that you’re a drug addict!

Pretty telling that Tara lets psycho killer Happy play/hang out with her kids, but doesn’t want Gemma involved. Happy might enjoy murder, but remember, he still loves his mom (Initially went Nomad to be closer to her). Same can’t be said for Gemma.

I had Opie’s death spoiled for me last night (I just finished watching the episode), but I still got choked up watching that scene. I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted a character not to die more than Opie. Maybe knowing he was going to die before watching the episode made it worse because there wasn’t hope that he’d survive. I feel like he never really got his revenge. He just kept getting fucked over through the entire series. And he always had a sad puppy face.

Opie’s death was heart-breaking, especially for all intents and purposes Opie was essentially an innocent when compared to other members of the club and was Jax’ moral center. I’m going to miss him, but it does make things interesting going forward now.

My immediate thought with the whorehouse raid was that is was Ashley Tisdale’s character.
Rival escort service that has a beef with Nero.
But the more I think of it, the less I’m convinced. I need to give the episode another watch.

It was hard to really pay attention to anything after Opie caught the pipe to the head.

If I were in law enforcement, I would like a little more evidence to go on than the word of a scorned prostitute before I storm a place and shoot a guy dead on the chance that it might be a whore house.
I think a real surprise will turn out to be that Gemma also gets arrested as a hooker.

Hands up, who hates Tig? He’s responsible for two innocent women’s deaths and now Opie’s murder as well. I hope after Jax does whatever politicking he needs Trager’s votes for, he either sends him on suicide missions or just dumps him at Pope’s doorstep.

I don’t know if I hate him. He’s just usually following Clay’s orders. He killed Pope’s daughter because he was trying to kill the Niner he was with to avenge Clay getting shot. Clay though? Fuck that guy.

He was trying to compensate for not being by Clay’s side when it happened. He was supposed to be the last line of defence between Clay and a bullet, but he wasn’t there, so he blamed himself for his President getting shot. Tig’s like a lost, necrophiliac, murderous, loyal puppy.

Tough to ‘hate’ him, I think he’s a great character and brilliantly acted. Interesting perspective above about Jax actually intending to give him back to Pope when he’s done. I wouldn’t be surprised, but now I think Tig will end up taking a bullet, real or otherwise, for Jax and the club.

Yeah even him going off for revenge and killing popes daughter, at the root of it is still Clay lying because Clay caused a situation that he couldn’t explain to the club. Can’t say I hate him, can’t say I’d mind seeing him die at some point either though.

Tig volunteered himself to take Dawn’s place, he didn’t want to kill Donna or Pope’s daughter. He’s been manipulated into doing those things. All of those deaths are on Clay…who definitely needs to die as soon as the Irish sells the Sons the big guns.

That’s actually spot on. Both are hapless creatures who tend to be manipulable and extremely loyal. Andy’s the harmless lovable guy whereas Tig’s the guy that will fucking murder you if someone he loves tells him to.

Being a pawn isn’t interesting. Protecting Gemma while she visits her father (who has Alzheimer’s) while he’s contemplating suicide, shacking up w/ the live-in nurse, being spooked by a cabinet full of ceramic figurines, and asking Steven King to help dispose of a body is much more interesting.

Before last night, all I wanted was to see Opie kill Clay. That’s gone now. Now I want to see Jax kill the guard, and Clay (mostly the guard now). PPOpie dying was way worse than Ned’s death in Game of Thrones. I know it was predicted on here, but I didn’t want to believe it.

It’s been a long time since Juice was the laughable idiot. Ah, to go back to season one, where he was dosing junkyard dogs with PCP and getting “Slightly retarded baby – please adopt” stapled to his chest and sent out into the world.

She is, but I’ve really come to hate the character more for the way Katy Sagal plays her than the content of her personality (Kurt Sutter writes a lot of characters I hate).
In particular it’s her voice, I think.

That may have been one of the hardest to watch character deaths ever seen. I knew it was going to be Opie from the minute Pope laid out the scenario. Opie’s “I don’t think I love anything’ line the week before seems a little too on the nose now in retrospect. If I remember right at the beginning of season 1, Jax brought Opie back into the club. His death is on Jax’s hands as well.

That said, story-wise his death was necessary. Hurst was unbelievable in his run on the show, hopefully he goes on to something good.

Watching Op die was horrible! He is and always has been my favorite character… his death did make the most sense though. He had lost everything thanks to SAMCRO and now that includes his life.

It also seems that Opie’s death was something that had to happen to wake Jax up a bit. He had long shit on him indirectly without every worrying that he wouldn’t be there for him. He kept him in the dark on numerous occasions and essentially took his greatest friendship for granted. Seeing him die as he did seems to have pushed him to a new level of ruthlessness that he is going to need to have to properly deal with Pope, Clay etc…

Gemma is getting pretty damn annoying… Tara did pwn her last night and it was a welcome sight. Seeing Adrianna (Wendy) always annoys me… interesting that she didn’t look like the bloated mess that she was on Californication last season.

I hate that Juice is still largely being led around by the nose by Clay…

Nero is obviously going to be a big player moving forward… probably in a beef with Clay. That raid had to be his handiwork. Also… WHERE THE FUCK IS ALVAREZ! Figuring that he’ll be needed at some point as well…

Most interesting seeing the level of respect that Pope clearly has for Jax… under different circumstances I am sure the two could have found a way to become allies. Sadly he is constantly going to keep the SONS and Jax in a corner for the loss of his daughter… that is until someone murders his ass. Which I hope that we will see considering the way that Sutter let Zobel escape back in the day.

I really believe that Jax signed Tig’s death certificate last night… he’ll use him again Clay/Pope potentially, but even though Clay is ultimately to blame for Opie’s death, Jax blames Tig.

Jax wanted Tig out of jail so he could send him on a suicide mission to kill Pope. Opie wanted to die, hence the smile. He was the bast character on the show. The Gemma vs Tara storyline is just so bad. The actor playing Pope just doesn’t do cold calculating crime lord very well. And of course Hunnam is just a bad actor..a bad actor with A BRO WALK. Clay set up that Gemma thing to say “If you don’t love me still why did you go apeshit on that hooker?” Nero thinks Clay called in the raid, Nero goes after Clay but still survives and becomes a ally of SAMCRO

So Clay’s just a down right piece of shit, right? He knows Jax needs him for something, but doesn’t know what but he does know that Jax will just let him shit all over everything to keep him for whatever it is that Jax needs. It’ll be fun watching Pope die, I hope Sutter gives us what we want after forcing us through Dawn and Opie’s death…not like letting Zobel live in S2. He did let us see June Stahl die and he did have Lincoln Potter fuck over the mayor. Pope’s gotta go in the most brutal fashion possible. I’m hoping they bring back the blowtorch.

Opie man…holy shit. That was rough, I was hoping he’d kill a few of those guys before ultimately getting killed by a guard or something not go out that way. Knowing how this all goes down after this though will be interesting. I have a feeling that guard has some serious juice that will be needed down the road. He’ll leverage his role as a shift sergeant to stay alive somehow. I have the feeling that Pope ultimately kills him for selling out to the Sons for his life.

Don’t get the Tara hate. She’s like Gemma except with redeeming qualities. She has all the intelligence and manipulation ability that Gemma has, but she’s smarter and actually knows how to use a nasty streak rather than just shitting all over everything. Now only if she’d get naked.

-Hey guys how do you think we should develop the Tara character?
-Oh I got it! We have her slowly turn into the person she hates the most!
-FABULOUS!!!!
-But arent we doing that with the JAX character?
-Fuck it. It’s super deep.

She has much more redeeming qualities than Gemma, and she’s a much more without the club. She’s an accomplished surgeon, she took in Abel as her own, and by all accounts she’s much more cunning than Gemma could ever hope to be. She has Gemma’s weaknesses because her career may be over, and she may no longer be able to do something she truly loves. Also unlike Tara, she can support her family she’s not dependent on anyone.

Basically it’s like saying “I hate Marlo because he’s basically String and Avon combined, it’s lazy writing when you need to end the arc between String and Avon but need another drug dealer.”

Sure she’s becoming like Gemma because she’s the wife of the leader of SAMCRO and she’s married her fucking son (and your wife always turns into your mom) of course she’ll have Gemma like qualities. If she didn’t there would be zero realism. No matter who Jax is romantically involved with she’d have these qualities just because being the President of SAMCRO’s old lady carries certain connotations. Part of it means that you have to handle your own shit and deal with a lot of people. Fucking Jax also means dealing with Gemma, and the best way to deal with Gemma from Tara’s perspective is to out Gemma her.

She can be quite annoying and bitchy sometimes, but that’s all women. The hate’s still misplaced.

Also, bear in mind that this is Sons of Anarchy…not Breaking Bad or the Wire. It’s a very good show, but falls short of being an all-time great show. It’ll hold your interest through all seven seasons, tell an interesting story , keep you guessing and wanting to know what happens next, and be worth following week to week. It’s not going to be ultra deep like The Wire or Breaking Bad in that you’ll have perfect story telling, but you will get good story telling and a pretty bad ass show week to week.

At Omar, it’s not Breaking Bad exactly because of that kind of shit. But I guess that will happen when you react to an attack with another attack. Also, your point about Marlo doesn’t even begin to describe the caracter in itself and within the story The Wire tells us. So yeah, you are wrong.

For this mysterious shadowy figure who nobody mentioned for four seasons, and who in the first episode, said explicitly that he didn’t want any chance of the revenge for his daughter’s death blowing back on him, Pope sure has a bad habit of showing up in person to get his dirty work done. Calling Sutter’s writing “ham-fisted” would be an insult to Nikki Finke pigs.

Well I don’t think it’s as good as the “great” dramas like Breaking Bad, The Wire, or Homeland…but it’s definitely more “watchable.” It’s compelling, in that there’s always that “HOLY SHIT” moment that makes you want more, but very rarely thought provoking beyond the resolution of a story arc.

Watching Opie die was harder than Mike on Breaking Bad or Charlie on Lost or Tara on Buffy. That was so not okay.

And to top it off, you know they’re still going to find out about Juice. And then at that point the best character is either gonna be Jax or Chibs.

Also, the break-ins are totally the new guys they patched over from Nomads. In the scene where they break into Gemma’s place and hit Unser you can clearly see something shiny moving underneath one of the guys pants, like the dude with a peg-leg.

Part of me thinks that Pope survives this season and returns next year. Other than Stahl, the villains on this show have not lasted more than one season (unless we count Clay as being a full on villain now), so something makes me think Pope may stick around.

I couldn’t help but think of the S2 death on Boardwalk Empire as well. Two guys with death wishes. While Opie’s is a bit more gut-wrenching it’s actually a credit to Sutter that it makes more sense. Fits Hamlet and should prove to be an amazing mechanism to move the plot forward and crystalize who Jax is as a character.

I think the home invasions and the raid at Nero’s are both the work of Clay. It was a mistake for Jax to let him live and now it’s coming back to bite him in the ass and then some. Even in his diminished state Clay is cunning enough to figure out that Jax needs him for the Irish, his ego is too big to allow him to sit back and be rendered irrelevant except for serving as the point person with the IRA, and he’s manipulative enough (especially with most of the club only knowing bits and pieces of the truth) to pull the puppet strings on other key figures to get what he wants (see: dumbass Juice). Clay’s either going to get everything he wants or fuck up things for the rest of them until he’s offed.

I have a feeling that Zobelle is somehow tied to Pope and possibly the cartel, and that he’ll eventually find his way back into the picture sooner rather than later. Just a hunch based on how both characters have comported themselves on the show and their drug connections, and my view that Zobelle getting on a plane at the end of season 2 wasn’t the last we’ll see of him.

Tara becoming Gemma is so fucking stupid. Also the fact that Sutter literally S-P-E-L-L-S it out for you is insulting as shit. I mean fuck she smokes weed in the bath tub, has blonde highlights, threatens everyone, and dresses like a rock star groupie…WE FUCKING GET IT. No need to have Christopher’s fucking wife call her Gemma.

The only way the spelling out of Tara becoming Gemma really annoyed me was at the end of last season when she and Jax essentially recreated the photo of Gemma and JT. That was a little too on the nose.

It is getting to the point where there will be no big pops left for the finale… we are only in week three and already have had that epic opener and the death of Opie… I am definitely looking forward to seeing where this goes though.

The Cartel gets Pope’s crew to get the RIRA calls off Pope’s murder right as Tig goes out in a blaze of glory murdering Pope and his version of Chris Partlow in a glorious explosion of brutality. Forcing them back with the Sons but also leaving Romeo worried about would he rather fuck the Sons for pissing in his pool or take the RIRA. Bam.

Endgame endgame? As in S7 finale? Kills Gemma, SAMCRO dies, barely saves himself, and lets Tara be the breadwinner while he works as a mechanic in some shit ass town leaving his outlaw life behind. Basically what happened to Vic but he keeps his family.

The show is off to a great start this year. I hope Sutter doesnt pussy out and give people a pass later. You know Juice gotta get his too. I like how dark the show is getting. It’s always been a little too ‘clean’ for a show about a gang of guns and drug running bikers.

I didn’t think there was any confusion -Clay is behind the home invasions. We know that the peg-legged SAMCRO nomad was in on the Unser beat down at Gemma’s, and Clay told the cops that they took his safe -but that it just had paperwork in it. Later on we saw the same nomads with the busted up safe and looking at a birth certificate or marriage license or something.

I didn’t think there was any confusion -Clay is behind the home invasions. We know that the peg-legged SAMCRO nomad was in on the Unser beat down at Gemma’s, and Clay told the cops that they took his safe -but that it just had paperwork in it. Later on we saw the same nomads with the busted up safe and looking at a birth certificate or marriage license or something. Clay’s dismissal of the paperwork followed by a scene highlighting it makes it pretty likely (to the point that I’m taking it as fact) that these guys are working under Clay’s command.

Maybe I’m missing something, but how is it that the Sons’ connection with Galindo/CIA powerful enough to “put a pin in RICO” but can’t overcome some dirty cops taking them into county lockup? Or, hell, why can’t Jax just tell Romeo that Pope is a thorn in their side, and liable to fuck things up, so please have someone kill him.

I understand the idea that Pope is the head of a criminal enterprise of some size (Despite us never hearing about him until now), but he’s going up against a federal agency plus a drug cartel. Is he really more powerful than that? And doesn’t it seem a little risky for the guy that didn’t want anything blowing back on him regarding his vengeance to be making trips to jail to threaten Jax?

I see it as the CIA just doesn’t give enough fucks about them. The Sons will do what the CIA wants them to, to get the charges dropped, but they don’t have to lift a finger to help them. I’m sure they will throw out the “wait the CIA isn’t allowed to do domestic operations”

So maybe somebody already brought this up in the comments or maybe I’m remembering incorrectly but I don’t understand how Jax can be pissed at Tig for this, didn’t both Jax AND Clay agree to tell Tig it was black guys (i.e. Niners) who shot him? So I mean they both kind of set this up, they should’ve known how Tig would react.

Also, two more things, I’m thinking it’s almost a guarantee that the home invasions are the work of those new guys they added to the club from the other chapter, the one guy made a joke about a place to put his feet up and put his feet on fatty-beardy-glasses-face’s shoulder, and then during the home invasion we see the one guy has a fake leg, just a thought.

2) Thanks for the opie death gif, I don’t get to watch the show on time because my wife is alseep and it’s one of our stories, anyway, my point is that facebook jacked up with spoilers so I knew what was coming and I had no recompense. So I took that gif this morning and posted it on everybody’s page who posted spoilers, good news is most of them had left the room because they didn’t want to see it and all of them were horrified by the gif.

I wouldn’t say Pope is evil. If someone killed your daughter wouldn’t you want revenge? Granted he is targeting more ppl than the one responsible, but i figure he just wants them all to pay for his suffering. But it will be nice to see him get killed